A Panax notoginseng Root Tip Meristem Biosensor and Its Sensing Kinetics for Five Important Nitrogen Nutrients

Abstract

Plants absorb nitrogen mainly through their roots. Nitrogen sensing is required for the absorption and transport of different nitrogen nutrients. In this study, we constructed biosensors with immobilized Panax notoginseng root tip meristems based on a three-electrode system and successfully determined the kinetics of the interactions between the P. notoginseng root tip meristems and five important nitrogen nutrients, namely, urea, sodium nitrate, sodium glutamate, disodium inosinate, and disodium guanylate. We discovered that the biosensor’s sensing kinetics was similar to the enzyme–substrate kinetics, and the receptor–ligand interconnected allosteric interaction constant Ka (mol/L), analogous to the Michaelis constant, was calculated. The result showed that the root tip meristems of two- to four-year-old P. notoginseng plants had a higher capacity to sense inorganic nitrogen nutrients (sodium nitrate and urea) than the three organic nitrogen nutrients. The ability of the plants to sense inorganic nitrogen nutrients decreased with an increase in plant age. The sensing sensitivity of four-year-old P. notoginseng plants to disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate was 100- to 10,000-fold lower than that of the two- and three-year-old plants. Additionally, the capability to sense sodium glutamate decreased initially and then increased with an increase in plant age. The biosensors reached an ultra-sensitive level ( $1\times {10}^{-22}$ mol/L) in sensing the five nitrogen nutrients and exhibited advantages such as good stability and reproducibility, low cost, a simple structure, and a rapid response, providing a new approach for quantitative determination of the capability of plants to sense different nitrogen nutrients.